How to Help Consumers “Value Maximise” in Supermarkets (new app idea)

We all want the best quality bang for our buck – it’s what consumer psychologists call “value maximisation“. Value maximisation is arguably the most important, and most central concept to understanding what guides consumer behaviour (without it, very little consumer behaviour makes any sense at all). And digital helps consumers value maximise by providing more information and more choice.

Of course there’s more to value maximisation than price (value = benefit/cost), and brands can help consumers value maximise not through a race to the bottom on price, but by adding value to their value proposition (whether functional, psychological, or ‘display value’). What caught our eye with this app is that it does both – it helps people save money and get more benefit from their purchases. It plays on both dimensions of the value equation. Smart.

Is this another new case in the ‘attack of the aggregators’ where new digital intermediaries undermine slow-to-get-with-plan retailers (think hotels, travel priceline, booking.com) by better offering information and choice? (See James’ Briscoe’s (Unique Digital) ‘Billion Dollar Marketing Lesson‘ to see the scary/exciting future we’re headed towards with this digital intermediation (not disintermediation).